After the new ownership group of the Memphis Grizzlies, led by Robert Pera, was introduced to the public at the beginning of the season, the team got off to its best start ever, 12-1 in November, including victories over the Heat, Thunder, Knicks and Lakers. (OK, so that Lakers win doesn’t look as good now, but you get the picture.)

Pera, CEO and founder of Ubiquiti Networks Inc., brought in Jason Levien to serve as CEO of the Grizzlies and run day-to-day operations. Levien, previously was part-owner of the Philadelphia 76ers, and is also part owner of DC United in MLS.

Levien sat down with Michael Sheffield of the Memphis Business Journal, a sister publication of Sporting News, to discuss several issues surrounding the Grizzlies, including the team’s unprecedented start, ownership’s plans for business and basketball operations, and just how important it is for Pera to have a high profile in Memphis.

MBJ: Now that you’ve had a little while to assess, what are your first impressions of the organization, and have you identified any areas on the business side you’re interested in changing?

A: I’ve seen people who want to work their butts off and make this team a success in the league and the community. I’ve been really impressed.

We can take a fresh approach to engaging with larger and medium-sized companies, find ways to help them grow their business, but at the same time grow our revenue.

We’re seeing what we can do to grow the pie for us, while making it a win-win for everybody involved. One of the good things is a lot of the owners are real leaders in the business community and I’m picking their brains.

I feel as though the community in Memphis has embraced us and embraced me in a way I’m appreciative of. But there’s a way of doing business here and having those relationships and those people having a stake in the Grizzlies has been advantageous. I can call CEOs here and they want us to succeed. a lot of them are part of the ownership group and I’m talking to them weekly.

MBJ: Does the early success of the team this season make it harder for you to implement some changes?

A: We certainly don’t want to disrupt the positive momentum. We only want to add to that. I think overall it is valuable because we can see what we can accomplish when the team is doing so well. It allows us to say, “If we’re this elite on the basketball level, how do we maximize our business growth?” It’s helpful. We’ve seen the analysis when the team was losing and when it was in the playoffs. Now we’re seeing the team do even better than that.

MBJ: How long will the ownership group be prepared to lose money, and how will you supplement losses? Previous owner Michael Heisley was known for personally subsidizing the team. Is that an option for this group?

A: We’re prepared to support the team. If it means supporting losses, we’re going to do that. It means there’s a lot of pressure on us and a lot of focus on making this a viable business that is breaking even if not profitable. We see a path to doing that. A big path to doing that is growing the pie with more revenue, more season ticket holders and more suite holders. The business community can get invested in the team. That’s a big point of focus for us.

It helps to have a compelling, exciting and winning product. It makes our job easier. If we were 4-14 instead of 14-4, it would not be as easy to go out in the community and get business leaders as engaged and get season ticket holders to want to renew. Success on the court can lead to success in our business financials. More than just this season, it’s the last two years of success with the playoffs and last year having the best record in the team’s history.

The wind was at our backs when we came in and we knew that. If you study sports revenue, it usually takes a few years to catch up. If you have the momentum from two seasons, by this season, you start seeing it on the revenue side. We want to accelerate it and increase it. As much as our 14-4 start, the last two years are a big part of that.

MBJ: When Heisley got into ownership, he said he didn’t get into it to make money. He always said it allowed him to work on his charitable outreach. Do you agree with that philosophy?

A: It started with a love of the game, a real passion for basketball and the NBA and I think we can create a viable business that can create value. You don’t get into it to put money in your pocket. He brought the team from Vancouver to Memphis, it’s become a pillar of the community and he reaped some of the rewards of that. We want to take advantage of that and a big thing is winning, doing things the right way and being a franchise that other franchises look up to as an example of success on the court and in the community. The third thing is what can you do to impact the community. Looking at what the Grizzlies have done is really impressive. Going to Grizzlies Prep, but there’s so much going on with mentoring and in the community that’s positive that’s part of the passion for Robert and myself in being involved with this.

MBJ: The core of the team is locked into place, but is the team prepared to exceed the salary cap and pay luxury tax to fill in some gaps next season?

A: We’re one of the top five spenders in the league right now for salary. The luxury tax restricts you from what you can do after you get there. You can’t sign a player to the full mid-level exception, and there are trades you just can’t make. We’re willing to spend, but the way the rules are set up, they discourage you from spending too much. One of the keys going forward is to maximize the salaries we do have. The teams that are going to succeed are the ones that get those decisions right more often than not. Pay the players fairly, but it allows you the flexibility to grow your roster.

MBJ: Pera mentioned he had been a fan of the Grizzlies for a while; what attracted him to the team initially?

A: We talked about it quite a bit. It was the identity of the team, with the grit and grind. The guys that take their lunch pails to work every day, play as a team, play hard, tough hard-nosed basketball. Lionel has been a part of leading it. Guys like Zach Randolph, Tony Allen and Marc Gasol have really created an identity. Since Robert said that, I’ve had a lot of people reach out to me that aren’t from Memphis, California and New York that are saying the Grizzlies are my team because of the way you guys play. We’re starting to attract a national fanbase. It comes with that identity and comes with that success.

MBJ: You recently initiated several personnel moves with D.C. United. While it’s a different sport and a different market, can you explain the reasoning behind those moves? Will you take a similar approach in Memphis?

A: I always say with DC United, the reasoning was about optimizing the growth of the business and pivoting to a new way of doing things. We wanted to bring in some fresh ideas and some new people. It was the right time to do that. There’s not really a correlation here, but if there are some fresh ideas we’re looking at then we want to bring in new blood. But I’ve been really impressed with a lot of the folks here and the leadership, as well as their motivation and commitment level.

MBJ: Is the team still on pace to meet revenue sharing goals that were set under Heisley?

A: Revenue sharing is fully in effect next year. We’re doing a lot of what we need to do to effectuate that. A lot of the changes are helpful to a market like Memphis. They give us the opportunity to make it a little bit easier for us to compete with all the teams in the league. I don’t think we should hold ourselves to the standards of “we’re a small market team, and we need to remember that at all times.” We need to go out there and say, “We’re one of 30 teams in the NBA, the best basketball league in the world and we want to compete with everybody.” We want to do it in a way that makes business sense, so we need everybody’s help in the community, we need our season ticket holders to be passionate and if we do all that, we can compete year after year in the league. Memphis will never have the same number of households as LA to get that kind of media deal, so there’s always going to be some difference. The NFL shares media revenue equally and it leads to real parity in the league. That was a big goal of the revenue sharing.

MBJ: What’s the overall feeling?

A: The overall experience has been very positive. For the first week or two, I felt like I was drinking out of a fire hose. Everyone asked me how I was doing and that’s how I felt because there was so much information to absorb and getting to know people in the organization and leaders in the community. My overall feeling is this is an organization headed in the right direction on the court and on the business side. We’ll make improvements and we’ll study those carefully. We didn’t come in right away and make a lot of changes. We didn’t make any because we wanted to figure out what we had, who the personnel are, get to know them and get their perspective on things.

MBJ: What would you call a successful season on the business side?

A: I think we need to significantly increase our season ticket base at the beginning of next year. We need to increase the engagement between the business community and their investment in this team. I think we want to find ways to make this an even more entertaining and positive experience for every event at FedEx Forum. If we can do those things a year from now, show the metrics growing, we’ll feel very good about it.

MBJ: How important do you think visibility is for ownership?

A: Robert and I agreed that the visibility would be much more me than him. I’d be on the ground and visible in the community. We also agreed that we wanted local ownership to be a big part of that in strategizing how to do business in Memphis the right way. what do people in Memphis really want out of this team. I think you’ll see Robert here and engaged. He’s very involved in the organization. I think it’s important, but what the fans want is to have a great experience and a great product. They don’t want to see me. They want to see Coach Hollins, Mike Conley, Marc Gasol and they want to see wins.

The Memphis Business Journal is a sister publication of Sporting News.